Characterization and Reverse Genetic Establishment of Cattle Derived Akabane Virus in China

Abstract Background: Akabane virus (AKAV) is an important insect-borne virus which is widely distributed in the tropical and temperate zones of Asia and Africa and is considered as a great threat in herbivores.Results: An AKAV defined as TJ2016 was firstly isolated from the serum of cattle in China in 2016. Sequence analysis of the S and M segments suggested that the isolated TJ2016 was closely related to the strains JaGAr39 and JaLAB39, which belonged to genogroup II. To further study the pathogenic mechanism of AKAV, the full-length cDNA clone of TJ-2016 S, M, and L segment was separately constructed into the TVT7R plasmid under the control of T7 promoter which named as TVT7R-S, TVT7R-M, and TVT7R-L, respectively. Then, the three constructed plasmids were transfected into the BSR-T7/5 cells simultaneously with a ratio of 1:1:1 to rescue AKAV. Compared with the parental wild type AKAV (wtAKAV), the rescued virus (rAKAV) was proved to have similar cytopathic effects (CPE), plaque sizes and growth kinetics in BHK-21 cells.Conclusion: We successfully isolated a AKAV strain TJ2016 from the serum of cattle and established a reverse genetic platform for AKAV genome manipulation. The established reverse genetic system is also a powerful tool which can be used for further AKAV pathogenesis and even vaccine studies.